Remarks by President Trump and President Niinistö of Finland

Remarks by President Trump and President Niinistö
of the Republic of Finland at Working
Break

Issued on: July 16, 2018

Mäntyniemi
ResidenceHelsinki, Finland

9:54 A.M. EEST

PRESIDENT
NIINISTÖ: Mr. President, ladies, gentlemen, it’s great
to have you here —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank
you.

PRESIDENT NIINISTÖ: — you are most welcome. We
have done our utmost so that your visit and your
negotiations here would be successful. And, like we see,
even the sun is with us, although it begins to be far too
warm, even here in the North.

But, once again, warm
welcome. And we wish all the success in your meetings and
negotiations with President Putin.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank
you very much. And we very much appreciate Finland. We
very highly respect your country, our relationship has been
a very good one, and our personal relationship has been very
good.

And I enjoyed being with you a couple of days ago.
NATO has, I think, never been stronger. And it was really
— it was a little bit tough at the beginning, and it
turned out to be love. It really was a great meeting that
we had and brought everybody together, and, I think, very
worthwhile.

But I appreciated your support and your help.
And I will say, again, you’ve treated us beautifully.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

Q Mr. President,
what’s your message to President Putin today?

PRESIDENT
TRUMP: I’m going to be seeing him in a little while.

Q
But what are you going to say to him?

PRESIDENT TRUMP:
We’ll do just fine. Thank you.

Q Mr. President,
I’m from Finnish press. What was the (inaudible) choice
to (inaudible) Finland as a meeting?

PRESIDENT TRUMP:
Well, we think Finland is a great country. We had a
fantastic meeting a few days ago; some of you were there.
It was a very successful meeting. I think NATO has never
been more together. People are now agreeing to pay, and we
were having a lot of problem with a lot of people not
paying, as the President will tell you. And they’re
paying, and they’re paying more rapidly. And I think NATO
has probably never been stronger than it is today.

So we
had a fantastic meeting, and now we’re capping it with
being in Finland. And the hospitality has been fantastic.
Thank you.

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